It is likely because your copy of XP is its initial release, pre SP. I would slipstream SP2 into it first, then install Windows. This is probably not what you want to do at this point though, so 2 other possible solutions would be:

* Download and make (or use the disk that came with the drive if you have one) and have it partition and format the drive before you ever boot from Windows.
* Create a partition on the drive for XP (like 15-25 gigs depending on how much you install to your C partition rather than another partition or drive), and leave the rest unformatted. Once Windows is running, upgrade to SP3 and then partition/format the rest of the drive through Disk Management.

That is a fairly old board, but I don't think you have a 137GB 'barrier' on the HD. There is a chance I'm wrong though (esp if you are trying something like XPSP2), if that is the case then you will want to update your BIOS which I found here.

I have already updated to SP3 but I haven't a clue about the disk management, where would i find that? It is not under system tools and I am pretty sure I have never used it before but then I have never had this problem before except with very very old computers running like 98

Well, like I said initially, I would just create a slipstreamed install disk and start from there. But I realize that most people wouldn't want to go through that after already getting the OS installed.

Without a program like Partition Magic you won't be able to merge them. What you can do is get gParted and delete your second partition, and then 'grow' your OS partition to fill the rest of the drive.

Screwing around with partitions is always a bit risky, which is why I'd just make a slipstreamed SP2 disk (I think making slipstreamed SP3 may have some issues...) and start from scratch. Then you never have to worry about this coming up in the future.

still have so much work to do though 4 more computers still sitting here to be worked on and this one is being a pain by rebooting on me heh i know the reason for the reboots but not the why... oh well